TV station refuses to run Sheehan’s ad

SALT LAKE CITY – A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son’s death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President Bush’s Texas ranch.

The ad began airing on other area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an “inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City.”

In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq’s development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.

“I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?” a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad. “I know you can’t bring Casey back. But it’s time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now.”

Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.

The ads were bought for Gold Star Families for Peace by Washington, D.C.-based Fenton Communications.

In a statement Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content “could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in the Iraq war.”